To many people, bugs are off-putting. They are creepy, slimy and cause shivers. However, bugs fascinate some people, especially those who attended the exhibit “Bug Brigade” at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Held the second and fourth Saturday of every month and running from 2-4 p.m., “Bug Brigade” allows visitors to learn and interact with insects and arachnids.
Housed in the building’s fourth floor, three siblings from the Pecchia-Bekkum family volunteer at every “Bug Brigade.” Founded by Steve Pecchia-Bekkum, a professor from the film department, the exhibition is a family affair for the Pecchia-Bekkums. His children Christian, Elias and Epiphany Pecchia-Bekkum were the bug experts supervising the event.
As they set up shop, visitors flocked to them and the strange specimens they brought. The Pecchia-Bekkum family fielded questions from both children and adults and passed around some of the insects for them to interact with. Among the lineup were multiple spiders, a scorpion, cockroaches and beetles.
At the insect showcase, Elias Pechia-Bekkum pointed out his personal favorite — the pink-toed tarantula — and let the eight-legged creature crawl all over his arms.
“This one is named Houdini. He’s just the nicest one. We’ve been working with him for just over a year. He’s from South America,” Elias Pecchia-Bekkum said. “He’s a little panicked with new people, but he’s been very good in the past couple weeks.”
Christian Pecchia-Bekkum, the oldest of the three sibling volunteers, highlighted the facets of the lone scorpion of the group.
“We’ve had this for about four to five years. He’s named Cancer, because he’s kind of crabby,” he said. “These scorpions can remain in a state of hibernation for up to a year without food or water. Because of this, I try to warn people not to pick up a dead scorpion, because it may not actually be dead. It may just be hibernating.”
Even though they successfully made many of the insects seem harmless if treated right, they still had one they insisted on not letting out — the Western Black Widow.
“This female is relatively new, and we don’t let her out as this one can intentionally kill someone with her bite,” Christian Pecchia-Bekkum said.
With all the insects working their way around the table, it’s possible to half-expect or hope that a radioactive spider among them would get loose and inject somebody with Spiderman powers. However, the Pecchia-Bekkum family created a safe environment to prevent such an event. Even more so, they created an enjoyable environment ripe with education and adventure for all to attend.
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